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Extra £200 million backing for British businesses

Press release 17 April 2019

  • Additional funding for high growth businesses as UK leaves the EU.
  • British Business Bank will provide funds through its venture capital and growth finance funding partners.

High-flying firms across the UK will benefit from a further £200 million of government support to ensure that innovative British firms can access the finance they need to grow.

The Exchequer Secretary, Robert Jenrick, today marked the launch of the new funding that will be made available to innovative businesses through funds supported by the British Business Bank. He said Ministers were determined to make the UK the best place in the world to start and grow a business. This type of funding has traditionally been sought by fast-growing firms in the science and technology sectors.

As the UK leaves the EU and the relationship with the European Investment Fund changes, the government remains committed to ensuring that innovative firms can access the finance they need to grow. The British Business Bank makes finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, allowing such firms to prosper and grow – therefore boosting the UK economy.

The UK is creating more start-ups and attracting more venture capital funding than any other European country, but we want to do more to ensure our small businesses and entrepreneurs can thrive. That’s why we are injecting a further £200 million into the British Business Bank, specifically to back businesses that are scaling up. Robert Jenrick The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury
We are fully committed to supporting small businesses to succeed as part of our modern Industrial Strategy, while building the UK’s status as one of the best places to start and grow a small business. This funding, supported by the government-backed British Business Bank, will play a key role in supporting innovative firms to access the finance they need to grow and thrive. Kelly Tolhurst Business minister
We welcome HM Treasury’s confirmation today that this allocation of £200 million is now available to increase provision of much-needed scale-up capital for innovative businesses across the UK. We look forward to putting the funding to good use through our delivery partners to enable such businesses to get the funding they need to grow and prosper. Keith Morgan CEO of the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank currently supports more than £5.9 billion of funding to 82,000 smaller businesses. Businesses that have benefited from this type of funding include artificial intelligence firm, Quantexa, and technology company, Improbable Worlds Limited

Further Information

Notes to editors

About the British Business Bank

The British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank. Established in November 2014, its mission is to make finance markets for smaller businesses work more effectively, enabling those businesses to prosper, grow and build UK economic activity. Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programmes for the UK government.

The British Business Bank is currently supporting more than £5.9bn of finance to over 82,000 smaller businesses (as at end of September 2018).

As well as increasing both supply and diversity of finance for UK smaller businesses through its programmes, the Bank works to raise awareness of the finance options available to smaller businesses:

The new British Business Bank Finance Hub provides independent and impartial information to high-growth businesses about their finance options, featuring short films, expert guides, checklists and articles from finance providers to help make their application a success. The new site also features case studies and learnings from real businesses to guide businesses through the process of applying for growth finance.

As the holding company of the group operating under the trading name of British Business Bank, British Business Bank plc is wholly owned by HM Government and is not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) or the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The British Business Bank operates under its own brand name through a number of subsidiaries, one of which is authorised and regulated by the FCA.

British Business Bank plc and its principal operating subsidiaries are not banking institutions and do not operate as such. A complete legal structure chart for British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries can be found on the British Business Bank plc website.

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